The Ramblings and Works of an Elderly Young Man

There’s so much that happened in my dream last night, and I can feel it slowly slipping my mind. It’s one of the few dreams I’ve had where it continued after I woke up a few times. (Hooray for drinking so much water.) Read more

I made the decision last night to step away from social media indefinitely. It’s become apparent to me over the last few weeks that I have distractions setup for myself everywhere I go, and I am tearing them down one by one. This was one of those steps. I feel that I’ve been neglecting this website though. I’ve been neglecting sharing my views on life, and putting down what I think. The biggest benefit of this site, is for me to come back later and learn new things about what had happened before. Read more

I think I’ve been avoiding writing this, even though I’ve needed to. But I feel it’s necessary to do it so I can reflect on it later and, maybe, use it to heal. To my future self, you made it through. But man, does it suck right now. Read more

The political parties (aside socialism) here have degraded into a struggle for who’s popular instead of who’s right, and the concern for the citizen is overwhelmingly petite. In almost every incentive that any nominee between local district representatives to the Presidential nominees seem almost like rehearsed rhetoric and have ulterior motives.

When a party dedicates their actions to ensuring the president doesn’t have another term in office because he doesn’t have an elephant on his pin, instead of being bad for the country… it signals to me a time for a political makeover. But that will not be possible, as people who wish to reform the government are marked as terrorists or anarchists, instead of being heard in an open forum.

Section II:

I am really, really starting to dislike how North America is throwing around the word “socialist/ism” as a curse word. I am of the opinion that having a social party mixed in with the dems and reps on Capitol Hill would be beneficial for many. I think the reason a lot of people are not keen on a socialist being in any seat of power is because:

These countries have a higher tax rate (especially Norway, whose tax rate is near or over 30%) but these nations also provide for near-free college, healthcare and other amenities. It’s because people want to ensure their nation thrives as a whole, not as a collection of individuals (there is a difference).

What’s the most prosperous country in the world? Norway. What’s it got that the rest of the world doesn’t? The biggest bump comes from having the world’s highest per capita GDP of $53,000 a year. Norwegians have the second-highest level of satisfaction with their standards of living: 95% say they are satisfied with the freedom to choose the direction of their lives; an unparalleled 74% say other people can be trusted.

The results of socialist influence are varied, but often times result in many good items that are often not centric to the American way of thinking, which is often, “I don’t care for my neighbor, only for my family and myself.” This way of non-global thinking often leads to, “If it doesn’t affect my pocketbook, I don’t care” and has led to an alarming low of non-voters in the United States– only 58%.

So what is my point? In the 2009 parliamentary elections, 76% of Norwegians voted. Germans have had a turnout of at least 70% since 1949. The trend continues the same way in many other countries whom have a partial Socialist party.

I strongly link the two together. Socialism is not a bad thing when executed properly. Stop marking it as such.

Section III:

It is possible to effect political reform legally. What disappoints me about the Occupy protests is that people are on the streets and angry, but nothing else is happening. People are not using the numbers they have en masse to effect change quickly. If you gather thousands of people in single locations and you’re upset about how something is being run, you have power as a citizen to get petitions going. And what better way to do it than to run around and have people who are registered to vote sign it for you en masse?

Not enough people realize that they have the power to pull people out of office, and put people in there that will listen. People need to stop pointing at what the officials are doing wrong, and redact their powers as the citizens have been empowered to.

Admittedly, I have not read the 50 Shades of Grey book yet. But I am also not an avid reader. As anyone who frequents this site knows (and it’s not many), I enjoy writing a whole lot more. I have friends in the scene and so I have some familiarity with the items the book describes.

So, enter “50 Shades of Grey.” Everybody and their mother has been asking me about it, and want to know if it’s like the real thing. I can’t tell them, because I haven’t sat down to read past the first chapter. Should I? Yes. But there is something more pressing that I see on the horizon.

Most media outlets love taking something that is taboo and has become popular, and turning it into a circus that revolves around how it’s wrong. I know the perfect storm that they’re waiting for, and that is for someone to blame a bondage accident on a book because “50 Shades of Grey” described it. And I fear it’s only a matter of time before it happens. Mark my words.

In no way should the book be held responsible for it, should it occur. Just as much as music shouldn’t be blamed for criminal behavior, video games shouldn’t be blamed for violence, a book shouldn’t be blamed for something that consenting adults wanted to try. There’s something that people seem to forgo in the heat of the moment, and that’s assessing risk. That usually means people forget to put on a condom or use some type of birth control. In this case, it might simply be doing things too tight because it’s feisty, or forgetting a pair of safety scissors.

Or someone feels overwhelmed and suddenly says they don’t want to anymore, and they’re no longer consenting, and the partner is laid the blame in the bedroom and eventually, in court. It’s not the medium’s fault for a person trying to imitate it. It’s the person’s fault for putting it forth. It’s the “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” logic applied to bedroom kink.

The media will make a target out of a book, and author, if and when it happens. The media will try to link the two together if they aren’t directly related. “Is this accident because of the influence of a book?” One cannot blame an author for an idea when it’s the user’s choice to try it out, and not use their own common sense to think things through like risks, precautions and consequences.

It’s only a matter of time, I feel. And I feel bad for E.L. James if and when it does, for the blame he won’t deserve for just writing a story.

I wrote this up quick as a response to someone’s post about relationships being lost in the convenience of technology. I thought I’d share it here.

When things started happening online many years ago, like IRC and Yahoo chat, people were able to be at a masquerade party online when they wanted to be. The disconnect of the real world was easy and you could just tell people how you felt about things without issue. As time wore on, the internet and socializing became more integrated into our lives, and as a result, the line between contact and online was blurred. Now, chivalry seems lost on social networking and texting; how primitive we’ve become in our ability to text and chat, but not be able to communicate with our eyes, mouths and ears– to see someone’s body language, to hear the inflection in their voice, and to feel someone in your arms when they say I love you, and it’s all through text.

I refuse to let something like personable interaction die. I was asocial from the get go, but I will not talk to someone about something personal through a text message, a phone conversation or otherwise unless it is completely unavoidable and it cannot wait. Why are all of these things, like conversations, arguments, feelings, love, insecurity, jealousy, trust and intimacy lost on people anymore? Because people define what their love is by a relationship status on Facebook. Because convenience has rid us of intimacy, and has robbed us of chivalry.

As I dive deeper into Germany, the depth of the beauty increases as well. I did not bring extra batteries for my camera because I thought the TSA wouldn’t allow them. So my main digital camera is nixed for the moment, but I am getting pictures of the countryside on my phone. It is better than nothing, but when I arrive in Munich, that will be one of my first priorities. Pictures are not optional. Read more